Fixing Her
by Kates Master's Sister
Summary: Maybe AU, but could be New Moon, pre Edwards return. Sorry. One shot. Charlie doesn't know what to do. She should be an independant human being.


Charlie doesn't know what to do.

On the one hand, he's thrilled. Bella is happier now than she has been in months. She smiled at him the other day, a full, proper smile that reached her eyes. The first one she had directed at him in far, far too long. He had forgotten how pretty she looked when she smiled. Not that he didn't think his daughter was beautiful anyway - she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen and heaven help anyone who said anything different - but her face changed when she smiled, it had a glow which he had forgotten about. What's more, he could've sworn he heard her laugh as she arrived home with Jacob just yesterday. An easy, carefree laugh. Not forced or strained, just an innocent, genuine laugh. He caught her expression as she walked in, and she looked as shocked at the sound as he felt.

He likes the boy, of course he does. He would be lying if he said he never hoped his daughter would end up with his best friends' son. Jacob is good for her, healthy for her. They are, as anyone could see, happy together. He is more than aware that he owes Jacob for Bella. Without him, Charlie is sure, his daughter would still be an empty shell, touched by nothing. Eating, sleeping, breathing, but not living. She would just…_be_.

Jacob put life in her. There is something of a sparkle in her eye, and a bounce in her step. She is looking after herself again, checking herself in the mirror before she leaves the house. She wears make up once more, not a lot, she never had, but just enough, enough to show she cares. And she's gone back to stealing his razor to shave, which, like the Jacob issue, both infuriates him and makes him ridiculously happy.

He starts worrying about her less. He stops worrying that he'll come home and find her gone, chasing after a boy who doesn't deserve her. He stops worrying about the knives left in the draws in the kitchen, and her at home alone. He likes to think that she loves him too much to do that to him, but the depth of her depression over the Cullen boy has made him question if he ever really knew her in the first place. But then he remembers what he was like after Renee left, and he understands a little. Not a lot, because him and Renee had been married and together for years, not months, but he knows what it's like to be abandoned by someone you loved and who you thought loved you too.

So Charlie is happy that Bella is happy.

Except.

He now can't remember the last time he saw Bella without Jacob being close by. If not in the room with them, then waiting in a car outside or sitting in the next room. One night, before he goes to bed, he realises that grateful as he is, Jacob is really taking the piss if he thinks Charlie is going to let him sleep the night here, in Bellas room. The boy had arrived earlier that evening, with Bella, as usual. He hadn't come down to say his usual goodbye. He wasn't going to let his teenage daughter share her bed with a teenage boy. Not under his roof. The idea was ludicrous.

Marching across the landing, Charlie pulled open the door to Bellas bedroom. He was ready to haul Jacob out and throw him down the stairs. But what he saw shocked him, and they looked so peaceful he couldn't bear to wake them.

They were both fully dressed. Well, Jacob never wore a shirt anyway, but his pants and belt were both firmly in place. Bella hadn't changed out of the clothes she had been wearing earlier. They were hardly touching. Bella was curled up in a ball on her side, facing the door. Jacob was sitting on the floor, his back against the bed, his legs stretched out in front of him, his chin resting on his chest. Their fingers were linked over his shoulder. It was as if she had put her hand there to stop him going, and he was reassuring her.

They were both fast asleep. It was almost…innocent, in a way. Charlie frowned. A smile was tugging at Bella mouth. He'd never seen her smile in her sleep before. Recently, all she'd done in her sleep was scream. If Jacob helped her sleep, he shouldn't complain. But she shouldn't need help sleeping. She was her own person. She was an independent human being. She shouldn't need a boy with her all the time. He blames Cullen. Cullen had broken her, Jacob was just doing his best to fix her. He hoped. But he couldn't help feeling, in an almost selfish manner, that Jacob was fixing her in the wrong way. He was just filling the void left by the other boy.

Charlie doesn't know what to do.

Sighing, he withdraws, pulling the door behind him, before changing his mind and propping it open with her desk chair. They could sleep in there to their hearts content, but nothing else was going on in that bedroom. Not on his watch.


End file.
